Spiritual Reconstruction: Gan Daofu’sExpanded Blue-White Porcelain

The prosperity of a nation derives from its flourishing spirit. A nation’s exquisite treasures are distillations of both culture and spirit. The Yuan Dynasty holds a slightly peculiar meaning in China’s long of history because rule by a nomadic race, along with military growth, saw the flourishing of blue-white porcelain. Concurrently, this  brightly colored and broadly influential type of porcelain, which changed the global evolution of pottery, testified to our nation’s strength at that time.
Blue-white porcelain—a perfect combination of water, mud and fire—is a breakthrough in human art history as well as a symbol of national identity. It has made a significant contribution to pottery in the world.
Gan Daofu has attracted people’s attention with works created out of his quest for truth in the medium of expanded blue-white porcelain. After six years’ work in Beijing following his undergraduate studies, Gan Daofu returned to the M.A. program of his alma mater, Jingde Zhen Institute of Pottery, and studied modern blue-white porcelain with his director Qin Xilin and other elder artists. This proved to be a favorable turn for him. During his graduate study Gan Daofu conducted systematic research on expressive forms of blue-white porcelain in all dynasties. Integrating this with his observation and comprehension of modern and contemporary arts, he pioneered a unique path of expanded blue-white porcelain.
The uniqueness of Gan Daofu’s porcelain work lies in the artistic effects and tensions produced by the oil painting brush or flat brush, used in place of the tapered brush as a tool for creating blue-white porcelain. During his creative process, he honors the brush-and-ink charm of traditional blue-white porcelain to give a vibrant effect. Meanwhile, his emphasis on the operative mode of the “plane” is combined with openness to irreproducible intuitive touches. Liang Kai of the Song, the Ming-Qing masters, Lin Fengmian’s modern alterations of the ink brush, Fu Baoshi’s overturning of orthodox ink-and-wash in favor of the freely wielded sideways brush, Zhang Daqian’s switch to splash-ink technique in his late years: in all these things we see the primacy of the “plane” and with an accompanying psychic tension. The “plane” has strength and substantiality, and is thus is a more ample, fitting medium for modern people to pour out their emotions. A structural scheme of inscribing blue patterns on planar chunks is a key feature of expanded blue-white porcelain.
When Gan Daofu’s mastery of tools reached the stage of unimpeded control, his passion for creation gradually became intense. The earlier brush of no more than 50 centimeters changed to 240 centimeters in more recent treatments: this brought a realization of extreme dis-inhibition and freedom in drawing. From the descriptive dimension of early works, he has turned toward a spirit of re-writing. Streams of intention have transcended the boundary of forms. Creating large-scale porcelain tiles has enabled the artist to put forth thoughts and sentiments at his will. The resulting mastery over huge two-dimensional space has stimulated his creative enthusiasm.